Two blasts in central Baghdad kill at least 21: police, medics

Two bombs exploded at a busy market in central Baghdad on Saturday killing at least 21 people and wounding more than 40 others, police and medics said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Islamic State regularly targets civilians in the Iraqi capital. Police said the blasts went off near car spare parts shops in Sinak during the morning rush. One of them was triggered by a suicide bomber, the other was a planted explosive, an Interior Ministry official told Reuters. Islamic State has lost much of the northern and western territory it seized in 2014 and is now resisting an Iraqi offensive on the northern city of Mosul, the ultra-hardline group’s last major stronghold in the country. (Reporting by Kareem Raheem and Ahmed Rasheed; Writing by Stephen Kalin; Editing by Michael Perry)